ParentingAces - The Junior Tennis and College Tennis Podcast

What happens when 3 brothers, all alums of the Yale Men's Tennis program, are inspired by an Aristotle quote to create an online space to offer coaching from some of the best in the business? Rhabit!

Repetitive actions, becoming habits, leading to excellence - that is the impetus behind this new platform that brings video instruction from top ATP/WTA coaches, current and former tour players, current and former college players, and others directly to you. Rhabit’s instructional videos teach proven skill and strategy development techniques in a unique vlog like style—delivering a fun learning experience.

Jeff and his brothers, Connor and Kyle, traveled around the US in an RV - The Rhabitat - meeting with and recording video sessions on the strokes, tactics, and other issues that make up the entire tennis development journey. In this week's episode, you will hear Jeff talk about what Rhabit.com offers, some of his favorite experiences on the road, and how best to use the site to enhance or supplement a player's existing coaching situation.

Graciously, Rhabit is offering a 15% discount to the ParentingAces community. Simply use code Parentingaces1 when registering. Of course, you can also test out the site with a free trial to make sure it suits your needs.

To learn more, visit Rhabit.com. You can reach Jeff at [email protected]. 

The article Jeff mentions pertaining to extended life expectancy is here. 

As always, a big thank you to STØNE for our music! You can find more of his music at SoundCloud.com/stonemuzic

If you’re so inclined, please share this – and all our episodes! – with your tennis community. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In our last episode, we discussed the youth tennis progression in terms of the Red, Orange, Green, and Yellow balls. This week we will discuss the youth tennis progression in terms of tactics.

Coach Todd Widom joins us once again to talk about the importance of integrating lessons on tactics alongside the technical training our kids typically receive. He gets into the details of how kids should learn the X's and O's of the game and how to tell when they are ready for a higher level of instruction.

If you have a child just starting out in tennis, do yourself a favor and listen to both Episode 43 and 44 to gain a more thorough understanding of the developmental process. And be sure to go back and read the Show Notes from Episode 43 as well.

To contact Todd, you can visit his website at twtennis.com. You can also email him at [email protected] or find him on Facebook or Twitter.

Thank you to STØNE for our music! You can find more of his music at SoundCloud.com/stonemuzic

If you’re so inclined, please share this – and all our episodes! – with your tennis community. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or via the ParentingAces website.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A couple of weeks ago I got an email from a ParentingAces Parent asking if I could do a podcast about the USTA's Red Orange Green Yellow ball progression. I posted my query on the various Facebook groups I belong to and got a great response! One coach in particular seemed to be the right one to help explain the progression, so I hope y'all enjoy hearing from Coach Michelle Brown!

Michelle runs the Longfellow Red Ball Tennis & Youth Sports Zone (contact info below). As a USPTA Elite Professional, she has been working with beginning players for over a decade now to help foster a love of tennis in them as they learn to play the game properly. 

In this week's episode, Michelle explains the equipment needs and skill requirements to move through the progression to playing on a full court with yellow balls. For more information on the USTA's rules around ROGY, click here. And here are some additional resources from USTA:

Junior Player Progression

Player Development for the Beginner Player

Early Development Camps

NOTE: I just received the following information from one of our listeners and wanted to share it with you . . .

The USTA provides sections two options to choose from. Additionally in option 1, a section may also choose to have 1 or 2 orange levels to emphasis level based play. Southern is supposed to use the 2 level system, but in most cases only one level of orange is played (Georgia only uses 1 level of orange). Most sections have adopted the option 1 to use with only one level of orange ball. 

In my opinion, Nationally there are two groups of thought on this 10 & U youth progression pathway. For one group the bar is higher than the other. Michelle appears to be in the group that accelerates the pathway without taking into account that players are not advanced unless they meet the correct on- court criteria to advance. With 200 kids in her programming each week, I can understand how she would get pressure from parents  probably demanding their player be advanced asap to the next ball color. The other group, player development advocates such as Craig Jones and Martin Blackman, support that players do not advance until on- court assessments are met. It has been said that the longer a player is on the red ball the stronger the foundation will be in later years. I don’t remember hearing Michelle mention in the assessments at the red ball level, players are to serve using the continental grip, and should be able to hit top spin and slice on both sides. How many red ball players do you see learning those skills before advancing? 

As far as Green Ball vs Yellow ball, a couple of things. Nationally the USTA allows sections to choose to play with the yellow ball after a player ages to 11 years old. I believe Southwest requires all 12 & under events, including their Section Championships, use the green ball for 12 & U events.

Note: A study in the UK a couple of years ago, according to Mike Barrell comparing green ball rallies vs yellow ball rallies, stated the points for younger players last much longer with a yellow ball than a green ball. What this meant was rallies with the yellow ball were more likely moon balls(bouncing higher, slower out of their natural striking zone with more lobbing) whereas the green ball rallies were shorter which meant strokes were more aggressive plus more likelihood of volleying and more of all court tactics. Again this creates the correct foundation for our young players, which is a very high priority for USTA Player Development. 

I understand the USTA, via Net Generation, is working on several innovative types of play not only for the 10& under groups, but for all ages 5-18 to include Red, Green and Yellow balls that are being piloted across the country now. The focus is more on player assessment plus level base play. 

Lastly, Net Generation is starting the groundwork to introduce many more events for Entry level tournaments which currently are weak or non- existent in many of the sections.

If, after listening to this episode, you decide the ROGY progression isn't what's best for your child, there are alternatives. Be sure to check out UTR Events and the Little Mo series of tournaments.

You can reach Michelle at:

Thank you to STØNE for our music! You can find more of his music at SoundCloud.com/stonemuzic

If you’re so inclined, please share this – and all our episodes! – with your tennis community. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or via the ParentingAces website.

In our last episode, you heard from Coach Todd Widom about the role of the Tennis Parent throughout the Junior Development process. In this week's podcast, you'll hear from Todd again, this time about the different types of coaches and which one is appropriate at which stage.

Coach Todd discusses the differences between a technical coach, a tactical coach, and a teacher. He explains when a child would need each of these and how parents can determine when it's time to move to a new coaching situation. 

To contact Todd, you can visit his website at twtennis.com. You can also email him at [email protected] or find him on Facebook or Twitter.

Thank you to STØNE for our music! You can find more of his music at SoundCloud.com/stonemuzic

If you’re so inclined, please share this – and all our episodes! – with your tennis community. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or via the ParentingAces website.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The role of the Tennis Parent is crucial in the Junior Development Process. But, if we don't have a clear understanding of exactly WHAT our role is, it's much easier to make mistakes along the way.

In this week's episode, Coach Todd Widom shares his thoughts on what we parents should be doing at each stage of the game. He starts with the early years, moving into the middle school then high school years, explaining how our role changes but also how it stays the same.

As always, you can reach Todd Widom via his website at twtennis.com or email at [email protected].

A big thank you to STØNE for our music! You can find more of his music at SoundCloud.com/stonemuzic

If you’re so inclined, please share this - and all our episodes! - with your tennis community. You can subscribe to the podcast on our website and on iTunes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For years I have been asking junior coaches to do a better job of communicating with families. Everything from which tournaments to play to whether the child is progressing to how a child compares to his/her peers are questions most Tennis Parents have.

Furqan Iqbal, the CEO of Tennis Locker, is a Tennis Parent himself who had similar questions for his son's coach. That coupled with his software development background led Furqan to create an app that would allow coaches to plan for and monitor player development while giving them a simple means of communicating with players and parents.

I had the chance to meet Furqan and hear his presentation at the recent WTCA Conference in New York. Once seeing how the app actually works and how simple it is for everyone to use, I wanted to share it with the ParentingAces audience.

I love that Tennis Locker solves the problem of coach to parent communication. I love that it includes a variety of pricing options to suit a variety of coaching situations. And I love that it can be used by all three facets of the Junior Tennis Triangle: player, parent, and coach.

After listening to this week's episode, I hope you'll go to the Tennis Locker website here and reach out to Furqan with any questions. You can contact him at [email protected].

A big thank you to STØNE for our music! You can find more of his music at SoundCloud.com/stonemuzic

If you're so inclined, please share this – and all our episodes! – with your tennis community. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's not every day you get to sit in a room and hear 3 current (and 1 former) college coaches discuss recruiting and what they look for in a prospective student-athlete!

Last week during the WTCA Conference, I had just such an opportunity. The COO of the ITA, Erica Perkins Jasper, led an incredible conversation with Mark Beyers (University of Mississippi), Lauren Embree (Pepperdine), and Lauren Spencer (Auburn) about coaching Women's College Tennis, how the landscape is changing, and what junior players and their parents can do to best-position themselves to make good decisions when choosing a school.

Not only is Erica a former college coach, but she was also the Senior Manager of Junior & Collegiate Competition and oversaw a majority of the USTA’s College Tennis Programming. It was in her role with the USTA Collegiate Tennis department where my son and I first met Erica during the NCAA Championships. She has been an invaluable resource to my family and to ParentingAces over the years. She coached at Georgia Southern (2002-04), William & Mary (2004-06), Michigan State (2006-08), and New Mexico (2012-2015). Known for her ability to turn programs around, her last coaching stop at the University of New Mexico was probably her most significant. Jasper inherited a program that in the previous 3 seasons had only 2 total conference wins, 0 conference tournament wins. In just three years the Lobos won the 2015 Mountain West Conference Tournament Championship for the first time in school history, advanced to the NCAA Championships for the first time since 2006, and finished with an ITA National Ranking of #59.

The three coaches on the panel are super impressive as well.

Lauren Embree is a recent graduate of the University of Florida and was hired as the Pepperdine Women's Assistant Coach in 2017. She was a five-time ITA All-American with the Gators, helping the team earn back-to-back NCAA Championship crowns in 2011 and 2012.  In each of the title-matches, she clinched the dual-winning match for the Gators earning herself Most Valuable Player in the tournament as a result. She played No. 1 and No. 2 singles and doubles throughout her career, producing a 38-0 career record among Southeastern Conference (SEC) competition. Before reaching the collegiate playing ranks, Embree competed in the ITF juniors circuit in tournaments including the French Open and French Open juniors, Australian Open juniors and US Open Juniors.  She won the 2008 Eddie Herr International Junior Championship and finished her juniors career ranked No. 6 in the world and ranked No. 1 in every age division in the United States. 

During his first season (2002) at Ole Miss, Beyers guided the Lady Rebels to their seventh consecutive NCAA appearance and a final national ranking of No. 35. No stranger to women's tennis, Beyers, a native of Tilburg, Holland, spent three years (1992-95) as head coach of the women's tennis team at Armstrong Atlantic State in Georgia. Beyers earned PBC Coach-of-the-Year honors in 1993, 1994 and 1995. In 1995, he received NCAA Division II South Regional Coach-of-the-Year honors. His teams ranked 10th, ninth and first respectively in the Division II national rankings. During his 25 years of coaching collegiate tennis as an assistant and head coach, Beyers has coached 25 All-Americans, 47 ITA Scholar-Athletes and 20 teams that have received the ITA All-Academic Team Award. 

Lauren Spencer is in her eighth season at the helm of the Auburn women's tennis program after being named head coach on Oct. 6, 2011. Spencer, the all-time winningest coach in school history, surpassed 200 career wins and 100 wins at Auburn in 2017 and now holds a 234-106 overall record (129-77 at Auburn). A four-year letter-winner at Louisiana Tech from 1999-2003, Spencer (formerly Longbothom) was the team captain for two years. Spencer was a mainstay in the Louisiana Tech lineup both in singles and doubles play and was named the team's Singles Player of the Year in 2000. Prior to her appointment at Auburn, Spencer spent the previous five seasons as head coach at Southern Methodist University where she led the program to a NCAA Sweet 16 in 2011 and the program's first-ever Conference USA Tournament championship in 2009. Before arriving to SMU, Spencer spent a semester as a volunteer assistant coach for her alma mater, Louisiana Tech.

A few weeks ago I received an email from a member of the ParentingAces community. It said, "We have a limited budget for tennis and you know personally how expensive it can be with all the costs adding up. I would love to hear a program on how to get the most bang for your buck. That is, ways to help your child become a great tennis player when you don't have a large income to draw on."

Ask and ye shall receive! In this week's episode, we address the topic of developing a high-level junior tennis player on a tight budget.

Coach Mike Belangia and parent/coach Will Segraves share their ideas and personal experience of how to Junior Tennis when you don't have six figures to spend.

Mike runs a program in North Carolina called Greensboro Tennis Program. According to what I've learned, the group practices on public courts, and the rates for lessons/academy and traveling coaches is very affordable. They also offer financial aid.

Will has raised his own son on a very limited budget and shares how he helped Gavin develop to such a high level that he was recruited by the Naval Academy to play tennis beginning Fall 2019.

I posted the question on the ParentingAces Facebook Group and received some great comments and suggestions there, too. One in particular stood out: "I worked at the tennis club, running their summer camps for over 9 years. I never got paid a dime, but my kids received free year round lessons many days per week. Wasn’t easy but well worth it and it was wonderful to be a part of all that they were doing." That comment was posted by my dear friend, Melanie Rubin, mom to Noah Rubin (ATP 139) and Jessie Rubin who played at Binghamton University.

Mike Belangia (pictured on the left) has been the City tennis director for Greensboro, NC for over 23 years. During that time his organization has run more than 600 tournaments including national and state championships. In 2001 he formed the Greensboro Tennis Program, one of the top junior training programs in the southeast. GTP is committed to providing opportunities for all kids in Greensboro to grow on and off the court. Mike has been fortunate enough to work with some the top pros in North Carolina history including Jim Winstead, Henry Hostetler and Jim Haslam. You can reach Mike at [email protected].

Will Segraves (pictured on the right) is the Tournaments & Social Coordinator at Farmington Country Club in Charlottesville, VA. Prior to his stint in Charlottesville, Will was the Tennis Director at PGA Tour in Duluth, GA. He has coached several elite junior players including his own children. You can reach Will at [email protected].

A big thank you to STØNE for our music! You can find more of his music at SoundCloud.com/stonemuzic

If you’re so inclined, please share this – and all our episodes! – with your tennis community. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Withdrawal from the backdraw of our biggest national tournaments has reached a ridiculous level. At last week's Kalamazoo Tournament (Boys 16s & 18s National Hardcourts), backdraw walkovers were at 16.89% up from 5.88% only fifteen years ago. 

Why are so many players pulling out once they lose in the main draw? What can coaches and parents do about it? What SHOULD coaches and parents do about it?

That's the topic of this week's conversation with coach Marc Lucero. He feels very passionately about this issue and shares his thoughts on the reasons behind all the withdrawals and what can be done to curb the trend.

After recording, I received a request via email from a parent: "Please discuss the summer schedule which contributes to fatigue and injuries. There are too many high level events too close together in my opinion."

Marc's response: "I think it’s a valid concern. However I think it’s less to do with the schedule than the feeling that you need to play everything on the schedule, if that makes sense. I think there is an education component to this that the USTA can do better but also some culpability falls on the coaches of the kids to take a more proactive role with helping guide parents in the scheduling. Parents also would have to give up some control in this scenario and this is also assuming that coaches have experience in this area. For those that don’t have experience or for parents who do this on their own, a good way to think about optimum scheduling is to pick the one or two biggest events in the summer and put those on the calendar. Then work backwards from there. The health of the player always comes first in my mind. I want the player to be as fresh and healthy as possible (ready to go play) heading into the biggest events." 

You can find Marc at First Break Academy in Carson, CA. You can reach him on Twitter here and Instagram here. He is incredibly responsive, so please feel free to contact him with any questions! 

A big thank you to STØNE for our music! You can find more of his music at SoundCloud.com/stonemuzic

If you’re so inclined, please share this - and all our episodes! - with your tennis community. You can subscribe to the podcast on our website and on iTunes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Trying to decide which type of school is best for your child is a tricky proposition at best. If the child is an elite athlete striving to reach the highest levels of the sport, it becomes even more complicated.

In this week's podcast, Lisa chats with Kirk Spahn, a former collegiate tennis player who is the mind behind Dwight Global Academy, an online extension of the prestigious Dwight School based in Manhattan. We think you'll find the conversation very (pardon the pun!) educational and eye-opening!

The following is an article written by Kirk and his head of school, Louisa Childs, for ParentingAces:

5 Questions to Ask Before Choosing an Online School

At some point in your child’s tennis career, you will likely wonder whether there is a better option than your child’s traditional “brick and mortar” school. You may feel that the 8 am to 3 pm school day does not allow your child enough time for coaching and practice. The school may not be able to accommodate your child’s need to travel for tennis tournaments. Or, your child may feel pulled between school and tennis, causing anxiety for the whole family. 

For many parents, an online school provides a seemingly perfect solution to these challenges; their child stays in school and completes his/her education, and simultaneously has more time and flexibility to devote to tennis. 

But all online schools are not the same. Before going online, families should ask these five questions to ensure that the online educational experience they choose prepares their child for success in college and beyond.  

1. Does the school offer an authentic school experience? Look for an online school that provides students with real-time, virtual-classroom seminars in which they interact with teachers and each other in the way they would on campus. These discussions are essential to advance student learning and will ensure that your child pursues his/her dreams in tennis without sacrificing their education. 

1. Does the school teach time-management skills? Some online schools allow students to study at their own pace, whereas others require students to meet certain deadlines and learn time management and organization. Many college coaches are looking for the latter approach; they need assurance that the recruit, once in college, will succeed in balancing a demanding tennis schedule with academic deadlines. 

1. Is the school academically rigorous? For families who wish to ensure that their child receives a stellar education while achieving the flexibility needed to focus on tennis, academic rigor of the online school is critical. College admissions officers will also look to rigor in determining whether the student has the skills needed to succeed in their college. Are advanced level and honors classes available? May a child be placed in a class above his/her grade level? For Division I and II colleges, classes must be NCAA-approved. 

1. Do the school’s faculty provide personalized attention? Students thrive when given appropriately tailored attention by dedicated teachers. The relationship between students and teachers is critical. Key questions to ask: Will my child get to know and have access to teachers? If my child has a question, how is it answered and in what time frame? Will my child interact personally with his/her teacher in an online class, or are students learning from a computer program?   

1. Does the school have a track record of college acceptances for athletes? Look for a school that has experience placing students on competitive tennis teams. College guidance should start as early as Grade 9, and should be led by dedicated counselors who are familiar with NCAA requirements. You don’t want to find yourself in a situation where you feel forced to work with a private college guidance counselor because the school’s staff isn’t guiding your child appropriately. 

As long as you receive satisfactory answers to these questions, your child is well-positioned to succeed in online school.   

This piece was submitted by Kirk Spahn, a Trustee, and Louisa Childs, Head of School, of Dwight Global Online School.  Dwight Global is the online program of Dwight School based in New York City and founded in 1872.  Kirk, who played tennis at Dartmouth College, understands firsthand the needs for flexibility and academic rigor in pursuing one’s passion for tennis.  As Head of School, Louisa works to help scholar-athletes achieve their dreams on and off the court.

To learn more about Dwight Global School, click here.

To contact Kirk, click here.

A big thank you to STØNE for our music! You can find more of his music at SoundCloud.com/stonemuzic

If you’re so inclined, please share this – and all our episodes! – with your tennis community. You can subscribe to the podcast on our website and on iTunes.